January 22, 2026 • 32 mins
Eric Mangini joins The Herd to talk about the big AFC Championship game between the Patriots and the Broncos, Baker Mayfield's feud with Kevin Stefanski, the Steelers head coaching search, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Five years as an NFL head coach, Jets and Brown's
franchises that often have turmoil. The Buffalo Bills don't. Sean
mcdermot's the rare firing where even though he didn't have
a title after many years, a lot of the fans
in Buffalo did not like it. Eric Mangini is now
joining us live Fox Sports. Okay, let's let's start with this.
(00:51):
It was a little clunky at the press conference yesterday
and the press release was embarrassing. Were you comfortable as
a former coach with a firing.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I Actually I love when owners get up and give
a press conference because it gives you some insight into
the challenge that you have as a head.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Coach with some of the now you got.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
You got a little peek in his conversations that take place.
But there's a lot of those things that you have
to navigate through with ownership, and you have an owner
that comes in and says, okay, I made the decision
in the moment, the most emotional moment you could get,
even though I felt like it was a catch which
would have won the game. And when you when you
(01:33):
hear things like that, it's just it's a precursor of
what's to come. And I think Sean McDermott maybe covered
up some of the meddling that that has gone on
in the organization.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Remember this group bought.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The Buffalo Sabers and there was a lot of hope
that when they bought the Sabers it would be really good.
And since they bought it, I think they've gone through
six head coaches and four gms and they had a
huge playoff drut. There's there's a track record here with
this owner group that maybe Sean's stability that he had
has has covered up and this could get a lot
worse before it gets better.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Were you surprised when McDermott, in front of Brandon Bean
and the owners suggested recently, I don't think we have
a Super Bowl roster. I think we have some deficiencies
were you surprised that he would confront those guys.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
No, you'd like to think that the GM and the
owner want to hear what you feel is the truth.
And when you have honest conversations, sometimes they're difficult conversations,
and you may disagree with my assessment, but I would
think that's what you would want from your head coach,
(02:43):
is what he feels is the truth about your situation.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Otherwise, how do you how do you ever get better?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
If you're if you're constantly glossing over deficiencies because you're
worried about hurting people's feelings, then you have no chance
to grow. So go ahead, go hire someone that's a
yes man. Go hire someone that's gonna agree with every
personal decision. Go hire someone that's not going to have
conflict in the draft room or with free agency. And
typically what that gets is a whole lot of mediocrity.
(03:12):
And it's going to get possibly what they had in
Buffalo before McDermott got there, which was the longest NFL
playoff drought.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
You know to that point.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now you know Brian Dable very well and you speak
very highly of him. Do you think he'd work in Buffalo?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Well, yeah, I mean, Brian is the ultimate Buffalo guy.
He grew up in Buffalo. He had literally work for
the Buffalo Tourism Bureau because he loves Buffalo so much.
So from that perspective, yeah, it's a great fit. He's
got a really good relationship with the most important player
on the team and a lot of respect from it,
and in my mind, did a significant amount to help
(03:52):
develop him from a fairly raw talent in college to
a much more polished talent.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Now.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I don't know how that cell would be in Buffalo
to move on from McDermott to Brian, and Brian being
let go during the course of the season I don't
think helps his case.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Look, I didn't agree with that either.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
But so so there's a little there's that aspect of it,
and then it depends on how ownership feels about Brian's possibility.
To remember this is this is the guy that's going
to come in and take them, not to the playoffs,
He's going to take them to.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. Right now?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Okay, what do you think you know, Rabel, what what
do you think I mean to go? From last year
to this year? They did have some money to spend.
Drake May went from really promising to Wow, what do
you think Rabel's best asset is what I mean, He's
(04:51):
a tough guy. He's got a physical presence. You don't
want to mess with him. And he's pretty pretty authentic
and bottom line guy, you know. I mean, he's got
a reputation. He comes in and there's no obs, very
player friendly though. Uh, in all your workings and dealings
and talking to him, are you a little surprised by
how good how fast they got?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So So I coached Mike and and was there when
we brought him into New England. We originally brought Mike
in I think he was going to be primarily a
special teams player and then he developed into you know,
the player that he was. He's what I can say,
Mike was one of the smartest, if not the smartest
player that I ever coached. And his ability to recall
things from from game plans you know that we had
(05:34):
years back and and not just recall it in sort
of a general sense, but in a very specific sense
was impressive.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
And then he had the ability to.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
He he could he could tease Bill Belichick in meetings
in a way that Bill would be okay with it,
so he could navigate through through that, which very few
players could do. Uh he and and it's a it's
a skill, so he could hang with the boys. He's
a guy's guy. He's got that element to it. He's
(06:05):
incredibly intelligent, and I think he has a level of
empathy that really it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Hits with the players.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
He understands what it's like to be a player, and
he has that component of it too. And then I
think the biggest thing column is he was part of
the system. He was part of our dynasty. But then
he left and he went to Ohio State and he
got a different perspective, and then he coached in Houston
and got a different perspective.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Then he was a head coach in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
He had that perspective, so he understands what it means
to be a patriot and to.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Be part of that.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And he had all that experience with Bill and the
things we did. But then he brought a whole different
level of understanding back into the organization to me, which
is what they needed to move on from Girod Mayo,
who had only coached under Bill Yeah perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
The Steelers awardedly boy, they like Mike McCarthy and I
hear about Chris Shooter. And my take is, you know,
the New York Giants and the Falcons got their coach,
which also means when you do it first, you get
the best receiver coach, the best coordinators, I mean Arthur
Blank and Lamar Finally now they're they're interviewing and writing checks.
Steelers just you know, they don't do this very often.
(07:21):
It's like that I said yesterday that Steelers have been
married for thirty five years. They're suddenly single. They don't
even know what a dating app is. They don't know
what they're doing. Look at the Steelers now, Eric, and
I'm like, they don't do this. I mean, if you
sit and wait for another two weeks, aren't you getting
the fifth best receiver coach on the market.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Well, well, not necessarily. And the Ravens are in the
same boat. They haven't done it in what eighteen years,
so that both those organizations are going through that, and
you may not necessarily miss out on the best coaches
because all these places that have openings, a lot of
them are going to keep their coaches under contract and
until a new head coach comes in that head coach
won't release those guys from their contracts. So sometimes you
(08:02):
get a great head coach later in the process because
they haven't been released by the new spot. When I
was in New York, dan Quinn didn't get released until
they made a head coaching change in Miami. He was
a Miami defensive line coach, and I was able to
get him later in the process because he was on
the market later. So you would think that if you
(08:24):
get there the earliest, you'd have the pick of everybody,
but it's not necessarily true because guys are still under
contract in a lot of these organizations until a new
head coach is found.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 5 (08:39):
Hey is Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Now.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
In addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
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Sports Radio, We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
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Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
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Speaker 1 (09:11):
Just a Belichick talk coming back into it. I don't
think Buffalo's to fit at all. I think Philadelphia because
they have a strong GM. Maybe in next year and
that Bill wouldn't touch personnel, that would make sense.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I think it's over to you think he's a viable candidate.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, I know Nick was talking.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Nick Wright was talking about him possibly in Buffalo, and
I was much more like you where I thought, Okay,
this isn't going to be a fit necessarily in the
NFL anymore, especially what happened last year in North Carolina.
It wasn't arousing endorsement, you know, coming off the lack
of success yet late in New England. But the reason
(09:50):
that I'd say that Buffalo could be a fit is
after watching ownership, I'm thinking, maybe you need to go
get a really strong guy that's not going to care
what He will not care what the owner says.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
He it won't matter to him at all.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And even though he won't be in control of personnel
and Buffalo, he'll still be He'll be willing to push back,
but I can't imagine that that's what they're really looking for,
although Bill would be the most plug and play guy. Yeah,
you know in that in that division, it's a it's hot.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
That's another hard sell for the for the fan base.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, the Seahawks Rams, It'll be on Fox. The I said,
if I get the older coach McVeigh, the more experienced
quarterback Stafford, Seattle's really young. This is a big, big spot.
And listen, they deserve all the credit in the world.
Now they're down to just one back they trust.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Both teams are remarkably healthy. But I do get in
some key spots. I mean, I Kevin Dotson and McVeigh. Uh,
you know, Davonte Adams, They've got Seattle's young, DeMarcus Lawrence
is an older player. But I do think there's value
in being in this game multiple times.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Or is that overstated?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
First of all, I loved your take on John Snyder.
I think he's done an amazing job too up there.
I mean that the decision, the strength of the decisions
he made moving on from Russell Wilson, moving on from
from Pete and Pete it was what nine to eight
the year that they moved on.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
People couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, I couldn't. The Russell Wilson one. I was surprised
by that worked out. He went and got Geno Smith,
which was you know, Gino wasn't proven by any stretch,
made him work. Moved on from Gino, went and got
Sam Darnold, gave him one hundred million dollars, Like, I
give him a.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Ton of credit.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
He's done an amazing and amazing job in this game.
I'm giving the edge to the Rams because of Stafford,
because of McVeigh, because of their familiarity, because of the
way that Stafford played the last time he was in Seattle.
He lit that defense up, what was it, four hundred
and fifty seven yards three touchdowns. They've played twice now
(12:07):
and he hasn't been sacked once.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
In either of the games.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
And then there's it's it's crazy and the Sam Darnold
factor is real? Is we saw him implode at the
end of last year. I really hope that that's not
going to be the case.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I really want to see.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Sam Darnold, whether he wins or lose, have a really
good game. But until he proves that he can he
can be like Stafford or Stafford to be like an
elite quarterback in these moments. It's I don't have a
lot of confidence that that's going to be the case.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
That is funny.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I think I'm the last guy that trusts Sam. I'm
last guy John Snyder, Mike McDonald and me.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Let's let's close it with this.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I was talking the other day to somebody who's an
executive in the league, and I said, you know, what
I really think is an important quality to great quarterback
play is humility. Brady didn't really do ads until after
the Atlanta Super Bowl. Eli Manning would not talk to
the media after wins, always available after losses, and one
(13:17):
of the first things I see, and I think Baker
has done a great job, But look the Johnny Manzel.
The Baker is like, guys, that's not what I'm looking for.
When I look at Fernando Mendoza, I see this kind
of nerdy Andrew Luck thing, where good parenting, humble, grateful. Really,
I don't think he's as good as Andrew Luck as
a prospect, but there is something when you come in
(13:41):
and you're the star at the star position and you
make a lot of money I think humility is way
underrated at that position, Like it's a weird thing.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Eric.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You have to be confident and the thirty six year
old right tackle has to like you, like it is a.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Weird dance you have to do.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I think for has that whatever that is, and I
discussed that your your opinion on.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
That, Yeah, that is very powerful.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And the thing with Tom is, no matter how much fame,
success or money he had, he was the same guy in.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The locker room. He worked the same way.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
He treated everybody in the building the same way. He
would be the first one to greet a new player
that came in. So as he became more and more
of a star, it wasn't like he pushed people down.
If anything, he brought more people in. He was he
was like the you know, the real strength of character
when when you have all of that and then you
(14:42):
bring in the people that are so far removed from that.
Everybody relates to that, everybody respects that, everybody wants to
play for that because it's it's real, it's sincere, and
it's endearing. Where you know, with with Baker, the he
gets back on top, he's back to you know, taking
(15:04):
shots at Stefanski and yeah, I get it. He went
through the whole heroes arc and I was cheering for him,
but now it's like, why do you have to do that?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Like there's no needs, there's just no need.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Finally, you know Jim Harball. I don't know if you
know John Harbaugh. I think he's a great fit. I
don't think they need a scheme guy. They need a
culture guy. The Harbballs are very similar in ways and
then they're you know, I've seen pieces on like HBO
on the Harball family.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
I love them. They're not for everybody. I love them.
How do you think that works? And what will it
be like? What will it look like?
Speaker 7 (15:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I think John Harbaugh is a great guy, a great,
great person, a great leadership, and hopefully he brings in
the stability that Tom Kaufman brought in. I'd say the
biggest challenge for John's going to be he was in
Baltimore with that personnel Department's been in place for thirty years.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I was in the interview.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
With Eric DaCosta with Ozzie Newsom when we hired him
as an intern, and now here thirty years later, he's
the GM the pro personnel guy's been there forever, the
salary guy's been there forever, So he had that built
in as a head coach.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Now he's going.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And he's gonna have so much power over personnel and
so much reach over the rest of the organization, which
isn't a bad thing, and it's not like he hasn't
earned that opportunity, but it's a lot and it's demanding,
and it takes up a lot of time, and when
you don't have that incredible stability in the personnel department
that's been successful and hit on I don't know how
(16:31):
many draft picks, but a ton the way Baltimore has.
I think that's going to be his biggest challenge is
the increase in the power that he has. I would
actually maybe have liked it to be a little bit less,
so you could just focus on creating the stability and
the coaching staff on the football side. But it's a
big ass to do all the jobs that he now has.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Yeah. Eric Mangini as all as coach, great senior.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Colin great, seeing you too, stay warm over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, nothing a little minus forty six. Yeah, Now my
third coach, Eric Mangini a good show today, A lot
of good stuff.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Yeah, it's just I think the Rams.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You know that that coach, that quarterback, one of the receivers,
as a veteran pooka, feels like he's been around forever.
What is it, three four year it feels like he's
been around forever. By the way the Mets acquire anybody else?
J Mack, I know everybody's upset about the Dodgers. They've
acquired seven players.
Speaker 8 (17:33):
I've never heard you this hot for the hot stove
in January. You are all over this Mets baby, say
second in the division or third?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, man, I just I'm looking at the Yankees and
the Mets have like bought all these contracts out. They're
gonna be very, very talented. Nobody seems bothered by it
at all. Don't get a story on it.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Why is that what?
Speaker 9 (17:52):
All?
Speaker 10 (17:53):
Because they're not winning, They're not a threat. That's my
whole point.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
If the Dodgers lose Game seven, you wouldn't be nearly
as outragedle Tucker totally agree. Men don't like other men separating,
and it feels like the Dodgers have separated. They spend
Dodgers spends seventy five percent of their revenue on players.
The Yankees spend forty nine percent. They both make over
seven hundred million dollars. Okay, it was like the Warriors.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Remember the Warriors won seventy three games and then they
added Kevin Durant and everybody hated them.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, and by the way, they blew through the luxury tax,
they were paid one hundred million a year in luxury tax.
I mean, so again, you're gonna blame Kevin Durant because
Kevin's like, I like the way they're run and I
can play with better players. College fans always celebrate this.
They love dominating National Letter of Intent Day. They love
when five star players want to join other five star
(18:42):
players at Ohio State because they want to play with
better players.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Right, who wha, wha wha why is that? Okay? But
a pro player Kyle Tucker's like, I want better guys
hitting in front of me, him behind me. Yeah, I
want to go there. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So you know the Mets are right in checks left
and right. Nobody bothered because their brand is underachieving. The
Mets have had talent forever, they just don't they you know, finally, Taulta,
they haven't they're not paying him yet. In one year
they're gonna have to write a big check for him.
He's great out of Milwaukee.
Speaker 8 (19:12):
By the way, do you think the NBA would love
to go back to the dominant dynastic Warriors when the
NBA was amazing?
Speaker 10 (19:18):
Now they got a different championship every year. Like I
think the MLB.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Is thrilled that the Dodgers are crushing it and have
the most loaded roster and they got to target on
their back.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
Oh, everybody's talking Houston.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
If health, he's going to be great, Cubs are better,
Yankees are good, Mets roster now sick, Dodger's good, Padres good,
Philly's good. Well, what about small markets? Cleveland won a division,
Milwaukee was fantastic. Seattle considers Seattle a small market, but
in baseball, you know the way the trajectory is for salaries. Seattle,
It's like, what about Cincinnati?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
What about him?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The LA economy the hundred times bigger than Cincinnati. What
about Saint Louis. Saint Louis dying city. It has been
for years. They've lost fifteen fortune five hundred companies in
forty years. An NFL team Saint Louis isn't competing in anything.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
By the way, how are the Blue Jays doing since
they went to the World's Series.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
By the way, there again spending a ton of money.
The Blue Jays and the Matts and the Dodgers all
spend a lot of their revenue, a really high percent,
seventy percent of their revenue. The Yankees spend fifty. Okay, so,
but even the Yankees went and bought Bellinger. Who's not cheap.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
It's the Herd.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon. Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I've never been in a city where it's minus ten degrees,
and that's what it will be tomorrow in Chicago, and
with wind chill, it will feel like according to local
meteorology or meteorology meteorologists, local meteorologists, that's a lot to say.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
At the end of the show, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It will feel like tomorrow minus thirty five degrees. You
know what it'll feel like to me a day off?
Speaker 10 (21:09):
Wait, wait, come on, is that real? Minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Well, that's what it feels.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
If Brady wasn't on the show tomorrow, I may just
I may be flying to Florida.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Tell the bosses whooping cough.
Speaker 10 (21:21):
Well, are you sure? Are you in Chicago or Greenland
right now? I'm not? Or is it Iceland?
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Where are you?
Speaker 10 (21:25):
Where are you broadcasting from? I am minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I went to Iceland two summers ago.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
I remember you were texting me from this It.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Was so much fun. Looks cool.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Iceland's great in the summer. Chicago is terrific in the summer.
So tomorrow is going to be uh, you know, life
is about chapters and adventures. Let me try this again,
local meteorologists.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
There you go a lot.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Jmck with the news.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Turn on the news. This is the headline news.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
All right, let's start with the NFC Championship game. Because
I did not know this awesome fact. Our staff got
Davante Adams and the Rams are playing the Seahawks.
Speaker 10 (22:05):
Did you know that.
Speaker 8 (22:06):
This is his fifth NFC Championship game. Colin Davante Adams
zero to four in the NFC Championship Game, has never
played in a Super Bowl heres, but here he is
talking to the media about that.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Fifth pip Yes, oh, okay, fifth SC title.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Game the Super Bowls.
Speaker 9 (22:23):
Yeah, so I should reminder, haven't been here so many
times and understanding exactly what it takes to you know,
get where world'imately trying to go. So it's obviously exciting
to achieve, you know, the minor goals along the way
that you ultimately need to do to get where you
want to be. But it just feels like almost like
a mythical thing to me at this point, you know,
like you do everything you can to get there, and
(22:44):
it's been it's been so hard and been working so
hard at it.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
So we're close. We just got to finish it off.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
He's been banged up in the second half, but when
he was healthy this year and has been healthy, he
is a red zone weapon.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
He is hard led the NFL and receiving touchdowns with fourteen,
but did not play Week sixteen. Colin I looked up
his four NFC Championship games and the stats. So the
one rookie year against Seattle, he had one catch for
seven yards. A couple of years later against Atlanta, remember
that blowout, Matt Ryan and company had three catches sixteen yards.
Speaker 10 (23:15):
Yeah, he did have a good one against Kaepernick.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
They got smoked nine for one thirty eight and then
won against Tampa and Tom Brady remember that kid.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
That was a crazy game.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
I get nine for sixty seven, so four NFC title
games only one touchdown for Devonte.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, he takes a beating. I mean this guy he
is built tough, like the truck commercial.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
He is.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
He has built hard and tough. This guy takes a beating.
I mean he gets flattened because he's willing to go
places a lot of guys aren't willing to go. So
I just have a lot of respect for the how
he plays. He's hurt a lot, but he's willing to
make tough catches. And he has been blistered about four
times in the second half of the season and like
bloody lip and your wonder if the face mask is
(23:56):
still attached.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
He is, he is built for it.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
He's one of those guys. He is you know, say
the same for Puka, Puka and Davonte. I mean they
are hard to bring down. They are difficult guys to defend.
They're just stronger. I mean some guys just you know,
and maybe it's a lot of receivers but not a
lot of body fat. Just you can see how great
a shape they're in. And he is, he is built
for it. He is a tough player.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
Yeah, really impressive stuff.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
All right, let's go to Denver, the other championship game
that nobody's really talking about.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
JAREDT.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
Stidham colin as your starting quarterback. He's stepping in for
bow Nicks. I gotta say, some of these Stidham takes
are getting a little wacky. I want to remind people
he has not thrown a pass in the NFL since
December twenty twenty three, not thrown a pass. And by
the way, that was a week week eighteen game that
didn't matter.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
It was all backups.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
Nevertheless, Sean Payton says he's built for this moment.
Speaker 11 (24:53):
That's his personality. He's gonna he's gonna rip it, you know,
and that'll be our approach. I mean, hey, he's got
this calm demeanor that I think suits him well. He's
played in big games college and you know, I said
(25:20):
this at the start of the season, I felt like
our two was inside the best thirty two.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I think you know why not.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I mean, I will say that the smart teams in
this league do a good job of having good backups.
I mean, let's be honest, Garoppolo doesn't he back up
Stafford if Stafford went down in the fourth quarter. Garoppolo's
made a lot of big throws at a lot of
big games. Jared Stidham, he signed to a twelve million
dollar deal when they had Russell Wilson's salary on the
(25:53):
books for multiple years. So I say this all the time.
I just trust Shanahan like Garoppolo. McVay likes Garoppolo. I
think Garoppolo's got some talent. Jarrett Stoodham Sean Payton, with
Russell Wilson making a fortune, said, now I'm gonna pay
that guy too. I'm gonna pay him, so I trust
that he's going to be pretty solid. I mean, my
(26:17):
guess is again, when it comes to quarterbacks, everybody was
bailing on Donald. Shanahan wasn't, Kevin O'Connell wasn't, Mike McDonald wasn't.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Like, I trust who the smart coach is.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
Like just a quick fact check, Jimmy Garoppolo is a
starting quarterback who went to the Super Bowl, okay with
the Niners in Shanahan and.
Speaker 10 (26:34):
On Peyton's point about he played in some big games
in college, so I looked it up.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Jarrett Stidham lost a Peach Bowl to the UCF Knights
and then won a Music City Bowl against the person Domon.
Speaker 10 (26:46):
Sorry Purdue, So let's settle down, Sean with the big games. Okay,
he hasn't thrown.
Speaker 8 (26:51):
A pass, no live action bullets in the last two seasons.
He goes in for a couple of kneel downs. Colin,
this is a humongous step up in class for Jared
Sidham and he's facing vrabel and a pretty damn good
defense that their defensive front, you can't run on them.
Speaker 10 (27:05):
Since Milton Williams came back.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
I think they've given up sixty three total rushing yards
in two games. So now a quarterback who hasn't brought
to pass it two years is face has no run game.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What's it?
Speaker 10 (27:16):
What's he doing here?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
This is just.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
I think we both are looking to make a case
for the dog. But if you give me a touchdown,
maybe maybe I'll take them. Final story, Colin, it's over
for Brandon Ayuk in San Francisco forty nine or GM.
Speaker 10 (27:33):
John Lynch made.
Speaker 8 (27:34):
That clear yesterday when he was asked about Ayuk's outlook
with the team.
Speaker 12 (27:39):
It's safe to say that he that you know, he's
played his last snap with the Niners. It's unfortunate, you know,
situation that just went awry, and you know, we I
will look long and hard at you know what, what
could have been done differently, But sometimes just doesn't work out.
And I think that this was this is a case
(28:00):
where that happened.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, they've they've been a little too willing in San
Francisco to pay receivers.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
I don't say say more, well, I mean I don't
they kind of they got hoodwink by the guy.
Speaker 10 (28:16):
Remember he scrubbed his social media. He acted like you
I want to be in.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
San fran He said all the right things, got the bag,
and then basically dipped out.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Colin.
Speaker 10 (28:24):
He's not returning text messages from the coach. I know
what the hell is that?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Well, when I.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Stopped, when I stopped responding to your text, you can
know that I'm checked out.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
I got the bag and I'm not I'm not coming
back to work.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
Like that's not a professional wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well receivers, you know, there's big personalities at that position.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They want to be respected.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
So I don't know, you got to earn respect, you know,
I just don't give you all. I had a one
hundred thousand yard season. Give me all the money. I mean,
Niner's got a lot of cleanup to do with this guy.
I don't know where who takes a chance on this guy,
somebody desperate.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well he'll have a market. Talent has a market. He's
telling not playing a lot lately, but he's got a market.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
Hey, Joe Shane, Joe Shane, pick up the phone called
Brandon grab.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
It's not what we need for the culture in New York.
Ah Jmack of.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
The news, Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping that.
The herd Line News.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Good games. It's Tom Brady's on tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I said that, Yeah, I'm being soft on this negative
ten stuff feels like minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
It's called Jackets coats.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Although I will say somebody told me today they often
change the train schedule when it gets real cold, like
they have to go, they can change it and modify
the train schedule. So now I'm not hitchhiking to work.
So I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna get here,
but it will be. You know what you got Brady
on You just make it happen.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
You just gonna make it happen, you know, speaking of Rams.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
The Seahawks. We had Greg Cosell on about an hour
and a half ago. The Rams have moved the ball
in Seattle, and the Rams have run the ball in Seattle,
and that's just not what anybody can do. Because Seattle's
interior d line has been outstanding. They have hit on
so many draft picks. They just it's a roster. And
(30:18):
then when they got Rashid Sahat at the trade deadline,
their special teams got jet fuel. So I mean Christian
McCaffrey in two games in the last month was invisible
against Seattle, like just where is he? Here? Was Greg
Kosel earlier on the Seahawks prepping for the Rams.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Walker's been much better. Walker has been attacking downhill much
more so over the last three four games, and that
has allowed them to stay on schedule. And it's also
with their defense allowed Donald not to have to throw
that many balls. Now, whether that happens in this game,
that's hard to know. You don't know how it's going
to play out. But in an ideal world, I don't
think they want Sam Donald dropping back thirty five times.
(30:59):
I think they want it to be a very balanced
offense and have their defense in some ways control the
paying tempo of the game.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, I don't think, And that sounds like a shot
at Darnold. But by and large, outside of I mean,
even Josh Allen, as good as Josh Allen is, it
feels like Josh Allen is pressing, trying to do do
much and how many turnovers did he have this weekend?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Like?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So, I don't think. I mean Brady was the exception.
He never threw a lot of picks. Mahomes doesn't throw
a lot of picks most. I mean Jalen Hurts. I
mean Dak Prescott's a great example. Dak's very good. There's
some stat with Dak Prescott. If you make him throw
it's like thirty seven times and over he's a sub
five hundred quarterback. It's like thirty six times and fewer.
(31:45):
He's got a great record. So I think for most
quarterbacks in this league, maybe Stafford is one of those exceptions.
I think you want him throwing about twenty seven twenty
eight times. You want a really good run game. You know,
Zach Charboney, that running back Michigan UC to the Seahawks.
He's been good against the Rams. He's not playing that
doesn't help. It's got a little bit of depth there
(32:06):
at running back atch Walker's offense, though from behind center.
I think it's going to go down as one for
the Ages, and Tom Brady stops by tomorrow break it
all down. He'll be doing that game with the KB
Kevin Burkhart, We'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
On Friday. I hope I can get here.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Five years as an NFL head coach, Jets and Brown's
franchises that often have turmoil. The Buffalo Bills don't. Sean
mcdermot's the rare firing where even though he didn't have
a title after many years, a lot of the fans
in Buffalo did not like it. Eric Mangini is now
joining us live Fox Sports. Okay, let's let's start with this.
(00:51):
It was a little clunky at the press conference yesterday
and the press release was embarrassing. Were you comfortable as
a former coach with a firing.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I Actually I love when owners get up and give
a press conference because it gives you some insight into
the challenge that you have as a head.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Coach with some of the now you got.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
You got a little peek in his conversations that take place.
But there's a lot of those things that you have
to navigate through with ownership, and you have an owner
that comes in and says, okay, I made the decision
in the moment, the most emotional moment you could get,
even though I felt like it was a catch which
would have won the game. And when you when you
(01:33):
hear things like that, it's just it's a precursor of
what's to come. And I think Sean McDermott maybe covered
up some of the meddling that that has gone on
in the organization.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Remember this group bought.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The Buffalo Sabers and there was a lot of hope
that when they bought the Sabers it would be really good.
And since they bought it, I think they've gone through
six head coaches and four gms and they had a
huge playoff drut. There's there's a track record here with
this owner group that maybe Sean's stability that he had
has has covered up and this could get a lot
worse before it gets better.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Were you surprised when McDermott, in front of Brandon Bean
and the owners suggested recently, I don't think we have
a Super Bowl roster. I think we have some deficiencies
were you surprised that he would confront those guys.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
No, you'd like to think that the GM and the
owner want to hear what you feel is the truth.
And when you have honest conversations, sometimes they're difficult conversations,
and you may disagree with my assessment, but I would
think that's what you would want from your head coach,
(02:43):
is what he feels is the truth about your situation.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Otherwise, how do you how do you ever get better?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
If you're if you're constantly glossing over deficiencies because you're
worried about hurting people's feelings, then you have no chance
to grow. So go ahead, go hire someone that's a
yes man. Go hire someone that's gonna agree with every
personal decision. Go hire someone that's not going to have
conflict in the draft room or with free agency. And
typically what that gets is a whole lot of mediocrity.
(03:12):
And it's going to get possibly what they had in
Buffalo before McDermott got there, which was the longest NFL
playoff drought.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
You know to that point.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now you know Brian Dable very well and you speak
very highly of him. Do you think he'd work in Buffalo?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Well, yeah, I mean, Brian is the ultimate Buffalo guy.
He grew up in Buffalo. He had literally work for
the Buffalo Tourism Bureau because he loves Buffalo so much.
So from that perspective, yeah, it's a great fit. He's
got a really good relationship with the most important player
on the team and a lot of respect from it,
and in my mind, did a significant amount to help
(03:52):
develop him from a fairly raw talent in college to
a much more polished talent.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Now.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I don't know how that cell would be in Buffalo
to move on from McDermott to Brian, and Brian being
let go during the course of the season I don't
think helps his case.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Look, I didn't agree with that either.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
But so so there's a little there's that aspect of it,
and then it depends on how ownership feels about Brian's possibility.
To remember this is this is the guy that's going
to come in and take them, not to the playoffs,
He's going to take them to.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. Right now?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Okay, what do you think you know, Rabel, what what
do you think I mean to go? From last year
to this year? They did have some money to spend.
Drake May went from really promising to Wow, what do
you think Rabel's best asset is what I mean, He's
(04:51):
a tough guy. He's got a physical presence. You don't
want to mess with him. And he's pretty pretty authentic
and bottom line guy, you know. I mean, he's got
a reputation. He comes in and there's no obs, very
player friendly though. Uh, in all your workings and dealings
and talking to him, are you a little surprised by
how good how fast they got?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So So I coached Mike and and was there when
we brought him into New England. We originally brought Mike
in I think he was going to be primarily a
special teams player and then he developed into you know,
the player that he was. He's what I can say,
Mike was one of the smartest, if not the smartest
player that I ever coached. And his ability to recall
things from from game plans you know that we had
(05:34):
years back and and not just recall it in sort
of a general sense, but in a very specific sense
was impressive.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
And then he had the ability to.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
He he could he could tease Bill Belichick in meetings
in a way that Bill would be okay with it,
so he could navigate through through that, which very few
players could do. Uh he and and it's a it's
a skill, so he could hang with the boys. He's
a guy's guy. He's got that element to it. He's
(06:05):
incredibly intelligent, and I think he has a level of
empathy that really it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Hits with the players.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
He understands what it's like to be a player, and
he has that component of it too. And then I
think the biggest thing column is he was part of
the system. He was part of our dynasty. But then
he left and he went to Ohio State and he
got a different perspective, and then he coached in Houston
and got a different perspective.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Then he was a head coach in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
He had that perspective, so he understands what it means
to be a patriot and to.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Be part of that.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And he had all that experience with Bill and the
things we did. But then he brought a whole different
level of understanding back into the organization to me, which
is what they needed to move on from Girod Mayo,
who had only coached under Bill Yeah perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
The Steelers awardedly boy, they like Mike McCarthy and I
hear about Chris Shooter. And my take is, you know,
the New York Giants and the Falcons got their coach,
which also means when you do it first, you get
the best receiver coach, the best coordinators, I mean Arthur
Blank and Lamar Finally now they're they're interviewing and writing checks.
Steelers just you know, they don't do this very often.
(07:21):
It's like that I said yesterday that Steelers have been
married for thirty five years. They're suddenly single. They don't
even know what a dating app is. They don't know
what they're doing. Look at the Steelers now, Eric, and
I'm like, they don't do this. I mean, if you
sit and wait for another two weeks, aren't you getting
the fifth best receiver coach on the market.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Well, well, not necessarily. And the Ravens are in the
same boat. They haven't done it in what eighteen years,
so that both those organizations are going through that, and
you may not necessarily miss out on the best coaches
because all these places that have openings, a lot of
them are going to keep their coaches under contract and
until a new head coach comes in that head coach
won't release those guys from their contracts. So sometimes you
(08:02):
get a great head coach later in the process because
they haven't been released by the new spot. When I
was in New York, dan Quinn didn't get released until
they made a head coaching change in Miami. He was
a Miami defensive line coach, and I was able to
get him later in the process because he was on
the market later. So you would think that if you
(08:24):
get there the earliest, you'd have the pick of everybody,
but it's not necessarily true because guys are still under
contract in a lot of these organizations until a new
head coach is found.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern non a em Pacific.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Hey is Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Now.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
In addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
seven pm Eastern and two to four Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
channel for the show.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube again go to YouTube search Kobe no
Edrich FSR, check us out on YouTube, Subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon coming away.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Just a Belichick talk coming back into it. I don't
think Buffalo's to fit at all. I think Philadelphia because
they have a strong GM. Maybe in next year and
that Bill wouldn't touch personnel, that would make sense.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I think it's over to you think he's a viable candidate.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, I know Nick was talking.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Nick Wright was talking about him possibly in Buffalo, and
I was much more like you where I thought, Okay,
this isn't going to be a fit necessarily in the
NFL anymore, especially what happened last year in North Carolina.
It wasn't arousing endorsement, you know, coming off the lack
of success yet late in New England. But the reason
(09:50):
that I'd say that Buffalo could be a fit is
after watching ownership, I'm thinking, maybe you need to go
get a really strong guy that's not going to care
what He will not care what the owner says.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
He it won't matter to him at all.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And even though he won't be in control of personnel
and Buffalo, he'll still be He'll be willing to push back,
but I can't imagine that that's what they're really looking for,
although Bill would be the most plug and play guy. Yeah,
you know in that in that division, it's a it's hot.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
That's another hard sell for the for the fan base.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, the Seahawks Rams, It'll be on Fox. The I said,
if I get the older coach McVeigh, the more experienced
quarterback Stafford, Seattle's really young. This is a big, big spot.
And listen, they deserve all the credit in the world.
Now they're down to just one back they trust.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Both teams are remarkably healthy. But I do get in
some key spots. I mean, I Kevin Dotson and McVeigh. Uh,
you know, Davonte Adams, They've got Seattle's young, DeMarcus Lawrence
is an older player. But I do think there's value
in being in this game multiple times.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Or is that overstated?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
First of all, I loved your take on John Snyder.
I think he's done an amazing job too up there.
I mean that the decision, the strength of the decisions
he made moving on from Russell Wilson, moving on from
from Pete and Pete it was what nine to eight
the year that they moved on.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
People couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, I couldn't. The Russell Wilson one. I was surprised
by that worked out. He went and got Geno Smith,
which was you know, Gino wasn't proven by any stretch,
made him work. Moved on from Gino, went and got
Sam Darnold, gave him one hundred million dollars, Like, I
give him a.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Ton of credit.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
He's done an amazing and amazing job in this game.
I'm giving the edge to the Rams because of Stafford,
because of McVeigh, because of their familiarity, because of the
way that Stafford played the last time he was in Seattle.
He lit that defense up, what was it, four hundred
and fifty seven yards three touchdowns. They've played twice now
(12:07):
and he hasn't been sacked once.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
In either of the games.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
And then there's it's it's crazy and the Sam Darnold
factor is real? Is we saw him implode at the
end of last year. I really hope that that's not
going to be the case.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I really want to see.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Sam Darnold, whether he wins or lose, have a really
good game. But until he proves that he can he
can be like Stafford or Stafford to be like an
elite quarterback in these moments. It's I don't have a
lot of confidence that that's going to be the case.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
That is funny.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I think I'm the last guy that trusts Sam. I'm
last guy John Snyder, Mike McDonald and me.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Let's let's close it with this.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I was talking the other day to somebody who's an
executive in the league, and I said, you know, what
I really think is an important quality to great quarterback
play is humility. Brady didn't really do ads until after
the Atlanta Super Bowl. Eli Manning would not talk to
the media after wins, always available after losses, and one
(13:17):
of the first things I see, and I think Baker
has done a great job, But look the Johnny Manzel.
The Baker is like, guys, that's not what I'm looking for.
When I look at Fernando Mendoza, I see this kind
of nerdy Andrew Luck thing, where good parenting, humble, grateful. Really,
I don't think he's as good as Andrew Luck as
a prospect, but there is something when you come in
(13:41):
and you're the star at the star position and you
make a lot of money I think humility is way
underrated at that position, Like it's a weird thing.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Eric.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You have to be confident and the thirty six year
old right tackle has to like you, like it is a.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Weird dance you have to do.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I think for has that whatever that is, and I
discussed that your your opinion on.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
That, Yeah, that is very powerful.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And the thing with Tom is, no matter how much fame,
success or money he had, he was the same guy in.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The locker room. He worked the same way.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
He treated everybody in the building the same way. He
would be the first one to greet a new player
that came in. So as he became more and more
of a star, it wasn't like he pushed people down.
If anything, he brought more people in. He was he
was like the you know, the real strength of character
when when you have all of that and then you
(14:42):
bring in the people that are so far removed from that.
Everybody relates to that, everybody respects that, everybody wants to
play for that because it's it's real, it's sincere, and
it's endearing. Where you know, with with Baker, the he
gets back on top, he's back to you know, taking
(15:04):
shots at Stefanski and yeah, I get it. He went
through the whole heroes arc and I was cheering for him,
but now it's like, why do you have to do that?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Like there's no needs, there's just no need.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Finally, you know Jim Harball. I don't know if you
know John Harbaugh. I think he's a great fit. I
don't think they need a scheme guy. They need a
culture guy. The Harbballs are very similar in ways and
then they're you know, I've seen pieces on like HBO
on the Harball family.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
I love them. They're not for everybody. I love them.
How do you think that works? And what will it
be like? What will it look like?
Speaker 7 (15:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I think John Harbaugh is a great guy, a great,
great person, a great leadership, and hopefully he brings in
the stability that Tom Kaufman brought in. I'd say the
biggest challenge for John's going to be he was in
Baltimore with that personnel Department's been in place for thirty years.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I was in the interview.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
With Eric DaCosta with Ozzie Newsom when we hired him
as an intern, and now here thirty years later, he's
the GM the pro personnel guy's been there forever, the
salary guy's been there forever, So he had that built
in as a head coach.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Now he's going.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And he's gonna have so much power over personnel and
so much reach over the rest of the organization, which
isn't a bad thing, and it's not like he hasn't
earned that opportunity, but it's a lot and it's demanding,
and it takes up a lot of time, and when
you don't have that incredible stability in the personnel department
that's been successful and hit on I don't know how
(16:31):
many draft picks, but a ton the way Baltimore has.
I think that's going to be his biggest challenge is
the increase in the power that he has. I would
actually maybe have liked it to be a little bit less,
so you could just focus on creating the stability and
the coaching staff on the football side. But it's a
big ass to do all the jobs that he now has.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Yeah. Eric Mangini as all as coach, great senior.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Colin great, seeing you too, stay warm over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, nothing a little minus forty six. Yeah, Now my
third coach, Eric Mangini a good show today, A lot
of good stuff.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Yeah, it's just I think the Rams.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You know that that coach, that quarterback, one of the receivers,
as a veteran pooka, feels like he's been around forever.
What is it, three four year it feels like he's
been around forever. By the way the Mets acquire anybody else?
J Mack, I know everybody's upset about the Dodgers. They've
acquired seven players.
Speaker 8 (17:33):
I've never heard you this hot for the hot stove
in January. You are all over this Mets baby, say
second in the division or third?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, man, I just I'm looking at the Yankees and
the Mets have like bought all these contracts out. They're
gonna be very, very talented. Nobody seems bothered by it
at all. Don't get a story on it.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Why is that what?
Speaker 9 (17:52):
All?
Speaker 10 (17:53):
Because they're not winning, They're not a threat. That's my
whole point.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
If the Dodgers lose Game seven, you wouldn't be nearly
as outragedle Tucker totally agree. Men don't like other men separating,
and it feels like the Dodgers have separated. They spend
Dodgers spends seventy five percent of their revenue on players.
The Yankees spend forty nine percent. They both make over
seven hundred million dollars. Okay, it was like the Warriors.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Remember the Warriors won seventy three games and then they
added Kevin Durant and everybody hated them.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, and by the way, they blew through the luxury tax,
they were paid one hundred million a year in luxury tax.
I mean, so again, you're gonna blame Kevin Durant because
Kevin's like, I like the way they're run and I
can play with better players. College fans always celebrate this.
They love dominating National Letter of Intent Day. They love
when five star players want to join other five star
(18:42):
players at Ohio State because they want to play with
better players.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Right, who wha, wha wha why is that? Okay? But
a pro player Kyle Tucker's like, I want better guys
hitting in front of me, him behind me. Yeah, I
want to go there. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So you know the Mets are right in checks left
and right. Nobody bothered because their brand is underachieving. The
Mets have had talent forever, they just don't they you know, finally, Taulta,
they haven't they're not paying him yet. In one year
they're gonna have to write a big check for him.
He's great out of Milwaukee.
Speaker 8 (19:12):
By the way, do you think the NBA would love
to go back to the dominant dynastic Warriors when the
NBA was amazing?
Speaker 10 (19:18):
Now they got a different championship every year. Like I
think the MLB.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Is thrilled that the Dodgers are crushing it and have
the most loaded roster and they got to target on
their back.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
Oh, everybody's talking Houston.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
If health, he's going to be great, Cubs are better,
Yankees are good, Mets roster now sick, Dodger's good, Padres good,
Philly's good. Well, what about small markets? Cleveland won a division,
Milwaukee was fantastic. Seattle considers Seattle a small market, but
in baseball, you know the way the trajectory is for salaries. Seattle,
It's like, what about Cincinnati?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
What about him?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The LA economy the hundred times bigger than Cincinnati. What
about Saint Louis. Saint Louis dying city. It has been
for years. They've lost fifteen fortune five hundred companies in
forty years. An NFL team Saint Louis isn't competing in anything.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
By the way, how are the Blue Jays doing since
they went to the World's Series.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
By the way, there again spending a ton of money.
The Blue Jays and the Matts and the Dodgers all
spend a lot of their revenue, a really high percent,
seventy percent of their revenue. The Yankees spend fifty. Okay, so,
but even the Yankees went and bought Bellinger. Who's not cheap.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
It's the Herd.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon. Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I've never been in a city where it's minus ten degrees,
and that's what it will be tomorrow in Chicago, and
with wind chill, it will feel like according to local
meteorology or meteorology meteorologists, local meteorologists, that's a lot to say.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
At the end of the show, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It will feel like tomorrow minus thirty five degrees. You
know what it'll feel like to me a day off?
Speaker 10 (21:09):
Wait, wait, come on, is that real? Minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Well, that's what it feels.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
If Brady wasn't on the show tomorrow, I may just
I may be flying to Florida.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Tell the bosses whooping cough.
Speaker 10 (21:21):
Well, are you sure? Are you in Chicago or Greenland
right now? I'm not? Or is it Iceland?
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Where are you?
Speaker 10 (21:25):
Where are you broadcasting from? I am minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I went to Iceland two summers ago.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
I remember you were texting me from this It.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Was so much fun. Looks cool.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Iceland's great in the summer. Chicago is terrific in the summer.
So tomorrow is going to be uh, you know, life
is about chapters and adventures. Let me try this again,
local meteorologists.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
There you go a lot.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Jmck with the news.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Turn on the news. This is the headline news.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
All right, let's start with the NFC Championship game. Because
I did not know this awesome fact. Our staff got
Davante Adams and the Rams are playing the Seahawks.
Speaker 10 (22:05):
Did you know that.
Speaker 8 (22:06):
This is his fifth NFC Championship game. Colin Davante Adams
zero to four in the NFC Championship Game, has never
played in a Super Bowl heres, but here he is
talking to the media about that.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Fifth pip Yes, oh, okay, fifth SC title.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Game the Super Bowls.
Speaker 9 (22:23):
Yeah, so I should reminder, haven't been here so many
times and understanding exactly what it takes to you know,
get where world'imately trying to go. So it's obviously exciting
to achieve, you know, the minor goals along the way
that you ultimately need to do to get where you
want to be. But it just feels like almost like
a mythical thing to me at this point, you know,
like you do everything you can to get there, and
(22:44):
it's been it's been so hard and been working so
hard at it.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
So we're close. We just got to finish it off.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
He's been banged up in the second half, but when
he was healthy this year and has been healthy, he
is a red zone weapon.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
He is hard led the NFL and receiving touchdowns with fourteen,
but did not play Week sixteen. Colin I looked up
his four NFC Championship games and the stats. So the
one rookie year against Seattle, he had one catch for
seven yards. A couple of years later against Atlanta, remember
that blowout, Matt Ryan and company had three catches sixteen yards.
Speaker 10 (23:15):
Yeah, he did have a good one against Kaepernick.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
They got smoked nine for one thirty eight and then
won against Tampa and Tom Brady remember that kid.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
That was a crazy game.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
I get nine for sixty seven, so four NFC title
games only one touchdown for Devonte.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, he takes a beating. I mean this guy he
is built tough, like the truck commercial.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
He is.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
He has built hard and tough. This guy takes a beating.
I mean he gets flattened because he's willing to go
places a lot of guys aren't willing to go. So
I just have a lot of respect for the how
he plays. He's hurt a lot, but he's willing to
make tough catches. And he has been blistered about four
times in the second half of the season and like
bloody lip and your wonder if the face mask is
(23:56):
still attached.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
He is, he is built for it.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
He's one of those guys. He is you know, say
the same for Puka, Puka and Davonte. I mean they
are hard to bring down. They are difficult guys to defend.
They're just stronger. I mean some guys just you know,
and maybe it's a lot of receivers but not a
lot of body fat. Just you can see how great
a shape they're in. And he is, he is built
for it. He is a tough player.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
Yeah, really impressive stuff.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
All right, let's go to Denver, the other championship game
that nobody's really talking about.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
JAREDT.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
Stidham colin as your starting quarterback. He's stepping in for
bow Nicks. I gotta say, some of these Stidham takes
are getting a little wacky. I want to remind people
he has not thrown a pass in the NFL since
December twenty twenty three, not thrown a pass. And by
the way, that was a week week eighteen game that
didn't matter.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
It was all backups.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
Nevertheless, Sean Payton says he's built for this moment.
Speaker 11 (24:53):
That's his personality. He's gonna he's gonna rip it, you know,
and that'll be our approach. I mean, hey, he's got
this calm demeanor that I think suits him well. He's
played in big games college and you know, I said
(25:20):
this at the start of the season, I felt like
our two was inside the best thirty two.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I think you know why not.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I mean, I will say that the smart teams in
this league do a good job of having good backups.
I mean, let's be honest, Garoppolo doesn't he back up
Stafford if Stafford went down in the fourth quarter. Garoppolo's
made a lot of big throws at a lot of
big games. Jared Stidham, he signed to a twelve million
dollar deal when they had Russell Wilson's salary on the
(25:53):
books for multiple years. So I say this all the time.
I just trust Shanahan like Garoppolo. McVay likes Garoppolo. I
think Garoppolo's got some talent. Jarrett Stoodham Sean Payton, with
Russell Wilson making a fortune, said, now I'm gonna pay
that guy too. I'm gonna pay him, so I trust
that he's going to be pretty solid. I mean, my
(26:17):
guess is again, when it comes to quarterbacks, everybody was
bailing on Donald. Shanahan wasn't, Kevin O'Connell wasn't, Mike McDonald wasn't.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Like, I trust who the smart coach is.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
Like just a quick fact check, Jimmy Garoppolo is a
starting quarterback who went to the Super Bowl, okay with
the Niners in Shanahan and.
Speaker 10 (26:34):
On Peyton's point about he played in some big games
in college, so I looked it up.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Jarrett Stidham lost a Peach Bowl to the UCF Knights
and then won a Music City Bowl against the person Domon.
Speaker 10 (26:46):
Sorry Purdue, So let's settle down, Sean with the big games. Okay,
he hasn't thrown.
Speaker 8 (26:51):
A pass, no live action bullets in the last two seasons.
He goes in for a couple of kneel downs. Colin,
this is a humongous step up in class for Jared
Sidham and he's facing vrabel and a pretty damn good
defense that their defensive front, you can't run on them.
Speaker 10 (27:05):
Since Milton Williams came back.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
I think they've given up sixty three total rushing yards
in two games. So now a quarterback who hasn't brought
to pass it two years is face has no run game.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What's it?
Speaker 10 (27:16):
What's he doing here?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
This is just.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
I think we both are looking to make a case
for the dog. But if you give me a touchdown,
maybe maybe I'll take them. Final story, Colin, it's over
for Brandon Ayuk in San Francisco forty nine or GM.
Speaker 10 (27:33):
John Lynch made.
Speaker 8 (27:34):
That clear yesterday when he was asked about Ayuk's outlook
with the team.
Speaker 12 (27:39):
It's safe to say that he that you know, he's
played his last snap with the Niners. It's unfortunate, you know,
situation that just went awry, and you know, we I
will look long and hard at you know what, what
could have been done differently, But sometimes just doesn't work out.
And I think that this was this is a case
(28:00):
where that happened.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, they've they've been a little too willing in San
Francisco to pay receivers.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
I don't say say more, well, I mean I don't
they kind of they got hoodwink by the guy.
Speaker 10 (28:16):
Remember he scrubbed his social media. He acted like you
I want to be in.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
San fran He said all the right things, got the bag,
and then basically dipped out.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Colin.
Speaker 10 (28:24):
He's not returning text messages from the coach. I know
what the hell is that?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Well, when I.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Stopped, when I stopped responding to your text, you can
know that I'm checked out.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
I got the bag and I'm not I'm not coming
back to work.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
Like that's not a professional wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well receivers, you know, there's big personalities at that position.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They want to be respected.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
So I don't know, you got to earn respect, you know,
I just don't give you all. I had a one
hundred thousand yard season. Give me all the money. I mean,
Niner's got a lot of cleanup to do with this guy.
I don't know where who takes a chance on this guy,
somebody desperate.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well he'll have a market. Talent has a market. He's
telling not playing a lot lately, but he's got a market.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
Hey, Joe Shane, Joe Shane, pick up the phone called
Brandon grab.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
It's not what we need for the culture in New York.
Ah Jmack of.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
The news, Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping that.
The herd Line News.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Good games. It's Tom Brady's on tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I said that, Yeah, I'm being soft on this negative
ten stuff feels like minus thirty five.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
It's called Jackets coats.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Although I will say somebody told me today they often
change the train schedule when it gets real cold, like
they have to go, they can change it and modify
the train schedule. So now I'm not hitchhiking to work.
So I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna get here,
but it will be. You know what you got Brady
on You just make it happen.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
You just gonna make it happen, you know, speaking of Rams.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
The Seahawks. We had Greg Cosell on about an hour
and a half ago. The Rams have moved the ball
in Seattle, and the Rams have run the ball in Seattle,
and that's just not what anybody can do. Because Seattle's
interior d line has been outstanding. They have hit on
so many draft picks. They just it's a roster. And
(30:18):
then when they got Rashid Sahat at the trade deadline,
their special teams got jet fuel. So I mean Christian
McCaffrey in two games in the last month was invisible
against Seattle, like just where is he? Here? Was Greg
Kosel earlier on the Seahawks prepping for the Rams.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Walker's been much better. Walker has been attacking downhill much
more so over the last three four games, and that
has allowed them to stay on schedule. And it's also
with their defense allowed Donald not to have to throw
that many balls. Now, whether that happens in this game,
that's hard to know. You don't know how it's going
to play out. But in an ideal world, I don't
think they want Sam Donald dropping back thirty five times.
(30:59):
I think they want it to be a very balanced
offense and have their defense in some ways control the
paying tempo of the game.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, I don't think, And that sounds like a shot
at Darnold. But by and large, outside of I mean,
even Josh Allen, as good as Josh Allen is, it
feels like Josh Allen is pressing, trying to do do
much and how many turnovers did he have this weekend?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Like?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So, I don't think. I mean Brady was the exception.
He never threw a lot of picks. Mahomes doesn't throw
a lot of picks most. I mean Jalen Hurts. I
mean Dak Prescott's a great example. Dak's very good. There's
some stat with Dak Prescott. If you make him throw
it's like thirty seven times and over he's a sub
five hundred quarterback. It's like thirty six times and fewer.
(31:45):
He's got a great record. So I think for most
quarterbacks in this league, maybe Stafford is one of those exceptions.
I think you want him throwing about twenty seven twenty
eight times. You want a really good run game. You know,
Zach Charboney, that running back Michigan UC to the Seahawks.
He's been good against the Rams. He's not playing that
doesn't help. It's got a little bit of depth there
(32:06):
at running back atch Walker's offense, though from behind center.
I think it's going to go down as one for
the Ages, and Tom Brady stops by tomorrow break it
all down. He'll be doing that game with the KB
Kevin Burkhart, We'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
On Friday. I hope I can get here.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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